Paris: Painting the Town Green
By: Chloe Laird & John Armstrong | Sept. 3, 2020
Series Intro: The environmental movement began as a grassroots project in Europe and the United States in the second half of the twentieth century and is at its zenith of political strength at the local level. National governments are simply not up to the task of meeting the challenges posed by climate change due to the untoward influence of special interest groups that dominate the regulatory and legislative landscape. However, some of the best policy entrepreneurship occurs at the local level, including major cities in the Atlantic area. This series is dedicated to looking at the green policies urban politicians are instituting to do their part in the fight against climate change.
If you have suggestions about cities or locales to highlight, you can submit tips to the authors (see below).
France leads the international field of pursuing eco-friendly policies that fulfill their aspirations to be an environmentally friendly country. Under President Macron, this agenda to pursue more eco-friendly policies accelerated under his policy priorities. One of the main goals of his presidency is to “promote France as a world leader in developing green technologies.” In pursuing his environmental policy, the French president encountered a major obstacle: the economic challenges that green policies pose for the average French citizen.
The best example of this was the last major initiative pursued by Macron, his eco-friendly carbon tax, one that readers may recall triggered months of Gilets Jaunes protests in 2018. Citizens complained that these measures were just layering on the already increased gas tax. Protestors believed these policies were “unfairly targeting lower-income households” with the price costing up to an average of 80 euros just to fill up your tank.
Yet, the 2020 French local elections this past June provided a new hope for those wanting to pursue aggressive green initiatives when many officials lost to Green candidates advocating for strong action.. One of the most important local elections saw the re-election of the Parisian Mayor Anne Hidalgo. Mayor Hidalgo has been in office since 2014 and she is most prominently known, by both critics and fans alike, as the person responsible for turning Paris into a “green city.”
Her recent re-election campaign slogan centered on turning Paris into “Ville du Quart d’Heure,” or the “City of Fifteen Minutes,” where every Parisian will have access to everything they need within a fifteen minute walk of their home. Her plans for making Paris into a car-free city is an extremely contested one among her critics, under her plans “Paris will remove 72% of its on-street car parking spaces.” Many are wary of her plans to continue to remove vehicles from Paris with her “Plan Vélo” or “Bike Plan” as many claim that the constant construction needed to finalize these projects have already created a “concrete city.”
While the initiative to increase bike lanes and encourage Parisians to reduce their carbon footprint is a positive one, the “environmental results are ambiguous at best.” A study conducted by Airparif looked at the 2016–2017 year to analyze the effects of Hidalgo’s policies on the environment. While the renovated pedestrian zones increased air quality in their immediate surroundings, the newly congested roads created a surplus of pollution, with an increase of 15% in some areas. Hidalgo’s goal to reduce pollution in the areas with more pedestrian and bike traffic had backfired: it created a surplus in other areas and actually increased the pollution that Paris had been experiencing.
Rome was not built in a day and change like this takes time. While vehicle traffic seems to have an upward trend, increasing by 3% from 2018, it seems that bicycle traffic grew in the same time period — an increase that would actually benefit the city long term. According to Celia Blaulel, the deputy mayor of Paris in charge of environmental policy, the “use of cycling facilities has increased by 54% in only one year, between september 2018 and september 2019.”
Aside from the goal to turn Paris into a car free city, another one has been to literally turn it green with trees, flowers and vegetable gardens. Among Parisians, this policy is far less controversial as it led to a more aesthetically pleasing city to live in. One of the biggest projects spearheaded by Mayor Hidalgo has been that of turning 100 hectares (247 acres) of buildings across Paris into “green” spaces, with “one third of this green space devoted to urban agriculture.”
Besides the aesthetic appeal of these green spaces, the sustainability aspect is encouraging for environmental advocates. Among the positives listed are: “limiting water wastage, improved air quality, reducing heat build-up and lessening the energy use in the city.” The initiative, started in 2016, has now seen over 1,860 projects completed across the city. With the additional space produced through these urban agriculture projects, issues such as food security could be addressed as well. The recent proposals are required to be pesticide-free and water-efficient which will build on the great potential for these projects to serve their immediate communities.
One of the biggest success stories in Paris, starting prior to Mayor Hidalgo’s time in office, is the development of Clichy-Batignolles. This development of the “eco-city” was recognized for its importance to sustainable architecture when it won the Sustainable City Grand Prize in the 2016 International Green City Solutions Awards competition. The goal is to turn what used to be a SNCF train yard into “an urban park surrounded by energy efficient buildings that will house 7,500 residents and provide places of employment for more than 12,000 people.” Green roofs are also being used in this community, a concept that offers insulation for buildings as well as additional garden space for the residents in the eco-city. As of 2018, 30% of the project had been completed and has the goal to be completed by the end of this year.
Mayor Hidalgo swept into office with a platform designed to make Paris an eco-friendly, green oasis among French cities. During her first term she fulfilled some of her promised environmental policies, leading to her re-election of a second, six-year term. Just like taking care of a garden, the transition process to a greener society requires patience and time before one can enjoy the fruits of their labor. The mayor of Paris now has a renewed mandate to continue her vision for an environmentally friendly city, and we are eager to see what will materialize these next six years in urban environmental policy.
If you have suggestions about cities or locales to highlight, you can submit tips to Chloe Laird at ccl95@georgetown.edu or John Armstrong at ja1342@georgetown.edu
Chloe-Alexandra Laird is a second year graduate student in the M.A. German and European Studies program at Georgetown University. Her research focuses on European security and defense issues.
John Armstrong is a second year graduate student in the M.A. German and European Studies program at Georgetown University. His research interests include national security, autocracy, and democratic theory.
